Why “The Book Dealer”?

When working together to share their passion of reading, Dr. Susan James, a then reading specialist, met Dr. Kathleen Heubach, a university researcher. Their work in the area of literacy led to Dr. James being dubbed “The Book Dealer” by one of her struggling high school students, a dealer himself (unfortunately of illegal substances).

While at first a bit taken aback by the possible negative connotation of this name, Dr. James now knows the importance of “dealing”books. All it takes is one person who can inspire a love for literacy for students, administrators, content teachers, and community members. A passion for literacy, a great set of books of various levels and genres, dime store notebooks, and a STRONG connection with students makes for the best of Book Dealers!

Purpose of The Book Dealer

A Book Dealer is anyone (teacher, media specialist, parent, administrator, etc. ) who instills a passion of reading by “hooking” students on books. The ultimate goal of any book dealer is to improve literacy achievement, while enriching the lives of students. The purpose of this blog is to provide an interactive site for teachers and other book dealers to explore the important issues related to book dealing. There will be opportunities to:

Explore

The big issues related to dealing books

Instructional ideas for dynamic discussions and engaging responses to literature

Share

Stories of what happens in the academic and personal lives of students when they encounter a true book dealer

Examples of “hooking up” individual students with books that are the perfect “fix” for each one of them

Obtain

The most current and exciting titles for children and young adults

Instructional ideas to try in your classroom

Dr. Susan James

Susan Densmore-James knew from the time she was 8 that she wanted to be a teacher. Following in her grandmother Iris Cleo’s footsteps, although her “first” classroom consisted of a mouse, turtle, and a chalkboard, she began her first official teaching job directly after college.

Her career has spanned 20 years as first a student teacher at San Diego State University in California, teaching 2nd grade. Upon returning to her hometown of Gulf Breeze, Florida,
Dr. Densmore-James began her career as a middle school English teacher, traveling around the United States to such places as Northern Virginia, North and South Florida, South Texas, New Orleans, San Diego, and Toronto, Canada, and was greatly influenced by the best educators around the U.S. The diverse groups of students with whom she worked were the driving force in her interest in working with struggling adolescent readers. This led her to obtain a Masters in Reading at the University of West Florida and continue on to become a Reading Specialist at her alma mater, Gulf Breeze High School. Although teaching K-12 is a passion, her time as an instructor at the University of West Florida inspired her obtain her PhD. from Florida State University in the two areas she loves most: Language Arts and reading. It is her hope to inspire teachers to become not only artists but also researchers in the area of literacy in order to give voices to those students forgotten by an educational system that may not meet the needs or understand ALL students.